Hungry Caterpillar Drama Exploration: Lesson Plan

Date: 20.10.08

Lesson: 2 of 3

Duration: ~ 45 mins

Lesson Aim(s): To explore the text through drama, focusing on movement and mime.

DRAS1.2 …Expresses feelings by using the elements of drama

·         Adjusts movement to reflect imagined context.

·         Uses gesture and facial expression to convey mood.

·         Works cooperatively to form a group movement.

·         Experiments with movement in new contexts.

·         Reflects upon drama creation.

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

10 mins

Teacher reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar to the students to refresh their memories about the story.

Establish class agreement for behaviour during drama including safe movement and signals for moving in and out of role.

5 mins

Warm Up:
Moving around the room, imagining different types of movement, including:

- walking along a street

- trudging through mud, then crawling

- floating like a leaf in the wind

- carrying something really heavy.

5 mins

Guide students through the story asking students to use only their bodies and faces to show the changes:

Eat a nice fresh green leaf.
You feel better but your feeling full so you start to slow down, and gradually curl into a cocoon.

10 mins

Assign each student a number. As a group, form the cocoon. Gradually move apart.

Become individual butterflies. Fly smoothly through the air. Sip some nectar from a flower. It gets windy and you struggle to fly against the wind. It starts to rain and it’s hard to fly as your wings get wet. Find a branch to rest on. Go to sleep.

15 mins

Students complete a short reflection by drawing a picture and writing a caption to explain how one part of the story was performed using drama.